The number of companies that conduct business over the Internet is increasing exponentially. Companies that provide on-line content to promote and provide their goods and services over the Internet have effectively opened their market to the entire globe. End users from many different states or countries can access a company's web site and obtain information and/or purchase products and services on-line.
The globalization of Internet businesses means that a company needs to cater its information and/or available products and services to many end users with different needs and preferences which are influenced by their geographical locations. A good or a service that may be relevant to a particular geographical location may be completely useless or undesirable in another geographical location.
Furthermore, many on-line advertisers who place advertisements such as banner ads on top or bottom of third party web pages continually strive to find improved ways to target their ads based on the end users' geographical locations. For example, placing an advertisement for goods and products suitable for one geographical location may be completely inappropriate for another geographical location. Without knowing the origin of an end user who views an on-line advertisement on a web page, it is impossible for an on-line advertiser to select the type of advertisement that is relevant to the end user's geographical location.
In many instances, both business providers and on-line advertisers also desire to determine the geographical location and the corresponding number of end users who have accessed their site or have selected a particular on-line advertisements in order to track the rate of responses to their advertisements and/or content and to improve their marketing strategies.
Thus, there is a need for a system and method that enables an on-line business provider to determine the geographical location of an end user who has accessed its web site in order to provide relevant information corresponding to that geographical location.